Oh how I love Charcutepalooza! While I didn’t have to challenge myself with last month’s theme (as posted here) this month’s challenge definitely made me bring it. This month was all about brining. The Apprentice Challenge (which I skipped) involved brining a whole chicken or pork chop. I decided to go right to the Charcuterie Challenge which was all about making corned beef.
Yes, making corned beef… from scratch. Who does that?
Oddly enough I don’t think I’ve ever in my life thought about making corned beef from scratch before last month. I enjoy me some corned beef as much as the next gal, but making it was so not on my radar. I was totally thrilled to see that was the challenge for Charcutepalooza. Oddly enough Darryl of Buster Rhino’s and Communal Fire had recently been posting all sorts of photos of his homemade corned beef and I had a serious case of the “I wants” and had decided that I would make my own at some point. Who knew that it would be so soon!
The crazy thing about making corned beef is that it is ridiculously easy. If you’ve ever marinated some meat and boiled something you have the skill set required to make yourself some awesome corned beef. As usual we used Michael Ruhlman’s book as our guide.
I started off the process by making my own pickling spice. I figured that if I was going to go through the trouble of making corned beef I wouldn’t bother with a supermarket, pre-packaged spice mix. Interestingly enough, I had almost all of the spices in my cupboard so it wasn’t such a pain to whip together.
To make corned beef you create a brine with your kosher salt, pink salt, pickling spice etc and allow the meat to soak for a few days. The planets were all aligned because my local Whole Foods (shout out to Whole Foods Market – Yorkville) happened to have brisket on sale for half price! Talk about excellent timing. So I had me a great, healthy piece of brisket for a decent price.
Like anything charcuterie-related the waiting game is the worst. I ended up having to let my meat soak for an extra day or so because I didn’t plan things out well enough but the extra time didn’t hurt my meat at all. After cooking the meat for the requisite 3 hours (give or take) my meat totally looked like corned beef. You can totally see the bright reddish-pink colour and the marbling of the fat. I was a bit nervous when I took my meat out of the brine. You see, I started my corned beef when I had 102F fever and the night before I left for my trip to Philly. This meant that my meat was left unattended in the fridge for 4 whole days. I thought my meat looked kind of gray when I took it out of the brine but it cooked up nice and pink… phew!
The taste of the meat was incredible. Sure I enjoyed corned beef before, but the quality of my homemade corned beef was beyond. The meat wasn’t dry or tough and the seasoning really permeated throughout the meat without being overpowering or tasting artificial. And did I mention just how easy it was to make?
For dinner the first night I did a bit of a boiled dinner by throwing some carrots, cabbage and potatoes in the cooking liquid. No photo of that because it didn’t look appetizing at all but trust me when I say that it tasted heavenly. I mean vegetables cooked in salty meat water? What’s NOT to love.
The next day I made corned beef sandwiches. But these were no ordinary corned beef sandwiches. I made the bread (a roasted-garlic and caraway seed bread) from scratch and I used my homemade mustard. Trust me when I say that I felt very rustic with my completely homemade meal. I was on some serious pioneer styles.
A few days later the corned beef was still going strong so I decided to do a little “breakfast for dinner” and made some corned beef hash. I decided to use this as an opportunity to clean out my fridge so this wonderful hash features potatoes AND sweet potatoes plus peppers and onions. I was going to poach the egg but I got lazy. I enjoyed my hash but it could’ve used more meat. Breakfast for dinner is pretty much the best.
So making my own corned beef was a total success and now I pretty much want corned beef all he time. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next challenge…
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
All I keep thinking the whole time was “how easy is this?” In fact all the challenges so far have been “ridiculously easy” – which I love. I didn’t eat much of the bacon or brisket this month but will definitely be making it again. Your hash is gorgeous!
Your sandwiches look super tasty…I love that everything is homemade. The hash looks wonderful too.
It’s funny about you mentioning the ‘gray’ looking meat. The first time I made corned beef (about 4 or 5 yrs ago) when I brought it out of the fridge, disappointment set in when I saw how gray it was. I almost threw it out actually. I am glad I took the chance and boiled it….
Love reading your blog!
I really like your photos – very beautifully done. I also like your idea of making corned beef hash. Thanks for commenting on our blog (zerocounterspace) – we will definitely check back here on a regular basis.
Looks fantastic!! Can’t wait for the smoking task!
[…] Homemade Corned Beef (by What’s On My Plate) […]
[…] Homemade Corned Beef (by What’s On My Plate) […]
I can’t thank Foodgawker enough for sending me this way.
Not only the mouthwatering images, but I never had an idea how simple the process actually was.
Hope I can succeed at making my own corned beef.
Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed!
[…] Homemade Corned Beef Click for Recipe […]